Dirty Happy Cutie

Yay #2

More chickens!

Mike loves chickens and has had chickens and roosters for as long as I’ve known him. Last year, he added a few more speckled hens to his flock and he was planning on doing the same this Spring. But this spring was crazy and it snowed in May and when we finally made it to the farm supply store, ready to buy,
all their chicks were gone!

I was at the farm supply store last week picking up some feed for Daisy, and as I was leaving, a sign by the door caught my eye: “Free chickens to good home,”
it said. I scribbled the accompanying phone number on my feed bag, called it when I got home, and was happy to learn the chickens were still in need of a good home. Ours! Mike was thrilled with my chicken sleuthing. We drove out the next night, and, with the former owner, plucked the hens and their rooster off their roost, tucked them gently into a few cardboard boxes, drove back to Mike’s house and introduced them to his coop.

They are so sweet and happy! There are seven white leghorn hens and one ridiculous rooster, each a year and a half old. The pecking order between the roosters was established the first morning and the hens began laying that very day ~ oblong proof that they feel comfortable in their new home and are not stressed by the move. They are free to roam and spend the day eating grass and bugs and goofing off en masse and then return to the coop at night. Happy chickens, happy us. Hurrah!

headin’ in for the evening ~

Is Daisy Pregnant?

No. Last week, I woke up from a very vivid dream about Daisy cycling ~ everyone was mounting her ~ even Ranger (my horse) jumped the fence to get to her and mount her. GAH!

That day, Daisy and another steer were inseparable. (A steer is a castrated male. He cannot get her bred but he will try.) He stood by her side even while she was napping. She stood for him midmorning which meant she was not pregnant from our first attempt and had to be AI’ed that evening for it to take.

However, The Caterpillar was out of the country. In Ireland. And the other woman in his office who does AI was off that day. So it didn’t happen. None of this really bothers me ~ I’m holding the faith that delaying her pregnancy is part of some grand design to avoid her calving during a horrible Spring storm.

Now I am armed with a pattern (and this is precisely why I should have been tracking Daisy’s cycles for the past five months) and can predict her next cycle. The vet will be back in town. It’s on the books. We’ll see what happens!